Tag Archives: PR

Online reputation management, , , , , , , ,
Ethics and Reputation Management

The Journal of Media Ethics, published by Taylor & Francis, has published “Evaluating the Reputation Management Industry through the Lens of Public Relations Ethics,” a new paper by Ben Medeiros. 

An Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Studies at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh,  Mr. Medeiros has taken a close look at the reputation management industry.  Interviews with many leaders in the field, including our CEO, add depth to his comprehensive essay. With reputation issues increasingly in the news, the time is right for his report.

An excerpt:

Inherited from English common law, the tort of defamation in America reflects a longstanding preoccupation with rectifying reputational injury. Likewise, public relations professionals have traditionally assisted public figures and businesses with managing their public image. In the digital age, a new force in reputation defense has become increasingly ubiquitous: so-called “online reputation management” companies.

Reputation management professionals offer to help ordinary citizens understand and manage how they appear to others with an assiduousness that would have only interested businesses or celebrities prior to the internet. They do so to ostensibly ameliorate a pervasive social anxiety that has arisen with social media and search engines: as a Fusion article put it in 2016, “five seconds of your life can become the entirety of your online identity.” If reputation management performs a function that is similar to defamation law and public relations in its ultimate aims, then what ethical and normative parameters guide reputation managers in offering their services, and how do they strike a balance between reputation protection and public access to information?

Anyone interested in learning more about online reputation management, will find Mr. Medeiros’ paper an invaluable look into an often-opaque practice. You can purchase the paper at Taylor & Francis Online and a preprint copy of the article is available here.

 
 
Branding, Online reputation management, , , , , ,

Maybe you have a new story you want to tell the world. But the Internet is telling an old one. You’re ready for more media coverage and interviews. But you don’t have a strategy in place for achieving that. Or your company’s online image is harmed by biased, untrue or outdated information. This could be from old media coverage and legal notices. Perhaps you know you need to update to a contemporary, digital-savvy online image. You also want to become active on the social media platforms that matter in your industry. You may not have the in-house resources to handle these projects, but you’re also concerned about your budget.

Here is what you need to know.

The Internet is the world’s best tool for promoting your personal and corporate brand. When you aren’t in control of that brand online, you have left it in the hands of the world at large. That is like leaving your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition.

Google values quality content. It wants to direct users to the best content…like well-written blogs. A strategically written blog can reduce your PR costs because, done right, it attracts journalists. (This blog, which began as a xeroxed online reputation management FAQ hand-out, has attracted interviews in Consumer Reports, The Houston Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Wall Street Journal and many more influential media outlets. Yours can, too.)

The Google results you hate don’t need to stay at the top of searches. The solution is a strategic plan to replace them with new material. If you haven’t been able to displace the old results, the new material isn’t sufficiently optimized.

Reporters now get as many story ideas from social media as from traditional pitches. Journalists are often introduced to organizations and stories on Twitter and other social media platforms. So if you aren’t using Twitter strategically, you are missing many opportunities for increased recognition.

“Suppressing,” “wiping” and “whitewashing” unwanted Google results is not always an effective approach. Early in the Internet’s history, online reputation management providers found ways to trick Google into hiding unwanted results. These tactics worked for a while, but now more often earn penalties for the websites benefiting from them. What does that mean? It means Google can drop those sites in search results when it recognizes attempts to game the system with poorly written content “dumps” and a multitude of fake links from meaningless sites. So if any provider tries to sell you on “suppression” techniques, learn more about what techniques they plan to use.

We publish comprehensive, free resources to educate consumers and help them to avoid such approaches.  The Essentials: Online Reputation Management FAQs is the best one to start with.

 
 
Crisis Management, , , , ,

After enduring an online firestorm, Starbucks has stopped encouraging its baristas to write “Race Together” on coffee cups.

Starbucks is planning several steps as part of the “Race Together” initiative that promise to substantially benefit minority groups. But by leading with the slogan, the company has prompted heated criticism.

One issue that is increasingly incensing the online community is when consumers feel they are not represented within the senior-level staff of the brands they are loyal to. And with this campaign, Starbucks unfortunately highlighted that issue. As the New York Times’ Sydney Ember observed, “Many have pointed out that the company’s leadership is predominantly white, while many of its baristas are members of minorities.”

This controversy reinforces the importance of authenticity in public relations initiatives. We don’t doubt that CEO Howard Schultz’s heart is in the right place with this campaign. And we support his efforts to encourage discussion and the economic components of the campaign. But if he is going to associate the Starbucks brand with such a serious social issue, he should have preceded that slogan with action…including perhaps a seriously substantive movement to diversify Starbucks’s leadership.

 
 
Crisis Management, , , , ,

The BBC documentary Reinventing the Royals was finally broadcast last night, after an earlier air date was cancelled. The controversy surrounding the documentary is not surprising, considering some of the unpleasant public relations approaches it describes. But that is one side of the PR industry that is deeply entrenched. The consultant described as Prince Charles’ consigliere is far from the first to use such tactics.